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dated by the hot oil, which would run down the walls. |
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"Owain, lay your arm across the arrow slits and see the narrowest. Then run down and see if you can find some troughsyou know, the kind they use for pouring grainthat will fit in the slits. The longer the better, and not too tight a fit, so the trough may be swung from side to side. If there are none, let the serving men wrench out every pipe and gutterspout they can find. Lay those some yards apart all around the wallsexcept not by the gates, they will have the pitch thereand bid the men-at-arms to thrust them through the slits when the attackers are halfway up the laddersnot sooner. Then the pipe or trough may be twisted so that it aims toward the climbers, and the hot oil must be poured through as quickly as possible." |
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Owain nodded and ran off, smiling grimly. That was a clever thought of his lord's. Owain remembered only two months ago how the oil had poured uselessly from the spouts made for it when they took the keep in Sussex. Then he had been surprised to see Lord Ian ride round and round the walls as close as he could get, daring death from arrowshafts, only to stare up at them. His lord had explained, of course. Lord Ian understood his duty to teach his squires all he knew of warcraft. Perhaps Lord Gwenwynwyn could be brave enough, clever enough, and thoughtful enough of his men to see where the oil spouts were and set the ladders well away from them, but it would not matter. With Lord Ian's arrangement, the oil would come to the ladder if the ladder would not come to the oil. |
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Owain gone, Ian looked around. Poles with hooks on the end lay ready to grasp the scaling ladders and push them outward. That might be possible, even when the ladder was weighted with men, because the angle would probably be more near the upright than he had set the ladders in Sussex. Even so He beckoned a group of men-at-arms together and explained that there was |
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